Labor Day 2011, at least as far as the Sacramento River float was concerned, was no more packed, pressured or dangerous, as any warm summery weekend.

By 4 p.m. Monday only about 400 people had made the float trip, compared to about 11,000 who made the trip Sunday.

Also Monday, while there were people pulled from the chilly Sacramento by rescuers staffing a flotilla of boats and personal water crafts, there reportedly were no high risk rescues where people were in life-threatening situations.

State Parks Ranger Travis Gee, who acted as the spokesman for the law enforcement side of the unified command, said, even with Sunday”s large crowd, and continuing into Monday the people floating the river were, cheerful, friendly and cooperative.

Capt. Mike Fehling, also with the state Department of Parks and Recreation, said the river turnout Monday was actually less than he would anticipate on an average, warm weekend day in the late summer.

He said the norm would be between 860 and 1,000 tubers.

In Chico problems ran higher than the norm for an average weekend, but substantially less than last Labor Day.

Figures compiled by the Chico Police Department show that between 5 p.m. Friday and 4:35 a.m. Monday there were a total of 93 arrests.

Of those arrests 19 were on charges of driving under the influence, 44 were for allegedly being drunk in public, and one for riding a bicycle while under the influence. That means 64 of the 93 arrests were alcohol related.

Chico police Sgt. Rob Merrifield said the 93 arrests, which included four in two different strong-arm robberies, were about twice the number of busts the department would anticipate over a weekend that didn”t include a holiday.

Merrifield said that Labor Day 2010 saw 124 arrests, so there was a significant drop this year over last.

Also on the positive side, according to the sergeant, there were no serious violent incidents over the holiday weekend.

As of Sunday, 19 individuals had been cited for littering under the state”s Fish and Game Code. The citations were issued by game wardens who were part of the law enforcement contingent on the river.

Each citation, according to Gee, carries a $1,000 fine.

Gee said that last year only “five or six” littering citations were issued.

The hope is, according to Gee, that word of the heavy fine for littering will circulate through the tuber population, and have the effect of reducing the problem.

In previous years the so-called beer can beach, which is a common mid-trip stopping point, has been all but buried under a layer of discarded tubes, rafts and debris of every kind.

While the gravel bar could not be called clean Monday, the trash level was obviously less than previous years.

, and people on the beach could be collecting trash.

Staff writer Roger H. Aylworth can be reached at 896-7762 or at raylworth@chicoer.com.